You can spend a lot of money on lawyers, accountants and consultants when starting a cannabis business. There is so much ground to cover from concept to execution– especially in a complex and highly regulated industry. Related to this issue, we have written on this blog about finding a team, and we have talked about the importance of things like operating formally, staying away from generic agreements and avoiding the seemingly bottomless Read entire story

Just two weeks after Speaker of the House Paul Ryan expressed public support for the legalization of industrial hemp, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is now guaranteeing that the 2018 Farm Bill will include the industrial hemp legalization provision once the House and the Senate solve their difference regarding this issue.
If there’s a Farm Bill, it’ll be in there, I guarantee that,” McConnell told reporters last Friday.
(To watch Read entire story

Recommended compliance level for Oregon licensees.
A couple of months ago, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC), for the first time, rejected a settlement offer from a licensee who had violated OLCC rules. At the time, we speculated the OLCC was done with settling and moving towards stricter compliance requirements. It seems, along with more stringent review of applications, the OLCC is doing exactly what we predicted and either rejecting Read entire story

Hopefully, more cities are creative with this hard stop.
We recently wrote about an announcement by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (“CDFA”) that temporary license applications need to be submitted by December 1, 2018 in order to be reviewed on time for approval and issuance before December 31, 2018. To date, California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”) followed suit, but the California Bureau of Read entire story

DON’T BE THE MOOCH.
This morning when I went to the gym before work, I put on an NPR podcast that delved into the story of the FTC’s bust of David Diamond. Diamond is an infamous Angeleno who defrauded hundreds of people via telemarketing scams. In the podcast, the interviewee does a great job of explaining the common scammer term, “mooch.” A mooch is, according to the podcast, “… someone who will essentially Read entire story

You get what you negotiate in development agreements.
This is the third post in our three-part series on development agreements in California. In our first post we provide an overview of the use (and misuse) of development agreements in the cannabis industry. The second post breaks down the basics of development agreement laws. Here, we will discuss the key terms to include and what to watch out for when negotiating a development agreement with a Read entire story

Oregon is getting greener and greener each cycle.
Cannabis not only won big around the country on Election Day 2018, but also on a local level last week within states that had already legalized adult use marijuana, such as Oregon and California. As to Oregon in particular, a handful of cities voted to lift bans on recreational marijuana on November 6. Nearly all of them succeeded.
As we’ve previously explained, Oregon allowed cities and counties Read entire story

We’ve got a lot of questions for the BCC right now.
Last month, California’s regulatory agencies charged with writing commercial cannabis rules released new modifications to the final rules proposed in July. The Bureau of Cannabis Control’s (BCC) proposed modifications contained some of the most dramatic changes, including what would effectively be an outright ban on intellectual property licensing for cannabis products—something we are Read entire story

Earlier this year, the Washington Legislature passed House Bill 2334 (the “Bill”) into law. The Bill allows licensed marijuana producers and processors to use cannabidiol (CBD) from a source not licensed by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB). The Bill defines a “CBD product” as “any product containing or consisting of cannabidiol” and would permit the use of CBD products from unlicensed sources so long as the CBD Read entire story

As we wrote on Tuesday, the midterm elections were monumental for cannabis: Michigan voters approved of a proposal legalizing recreational marijuana for adult use, Utah and Missouri will soon establish medical marijuana regimes, and Texas Representative and marijuana antagonist Pete Sessions lost to a Democrat.
All in all, Tuesday was a good day at the state and national level. But cannabis wasn’t just on the ballot at the state or national Read entire story

These proposed BCC regulations would be a mistake.
As we’ve been blogging about for the last couple of weeks, the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) recently released modifications to the proposed regulations for cannabis licensees, one of which effectively prohibits all licensing, white labeling and manufacturing agreements between two parties where one of those parties is not a licensed cannabis business. In our post on this modification, we Read entire story

Finally, Sessions is a goner.
Jeff Sessions, the drug warrior that may or may not have liked the KKK until he found out they smoked pot, is out as U.S. Attorney General. After two years of being relentlessly bullied by President Trump, Sessions has apparently had enough. The Sessions resignation is of special interest to the marijuana industry because of just how much he hates marijuana. So it’s great news that Sessions is out, right?
While it’s Read entire story

Start from scratch with your CBD product labels.
Since the beginning of the year, our firm has received a growing number of inquiries related to the labeling of cannabinoids (“CBD”)-infused foods. This legal issue is particularly confusing given the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has yet to provide clear guidance for this category of products. This post aims to shed some light on the matter by addressing some of the Read entire story

Today was a stellar day for marijuana advocates around the country. Not only did a handful of states authorize legalization of medical and recreational marijuana at the polls, but the Democratic Party took control of the House of Representatives, and one very problematic Congressman, Pete Sessions, was sent packing down in Texas.
Below is a summary of the big changes nationwide, with many of these results still firming up at the time of writing. Read entire story

Certain L.A. dispensaries may soon be stuck in place.
Los Angeles’s existing medical marijuana dispensaries (“EMMDs”) under Measure M will soon be precluded from relocating from their current operations unless and until they receive their local annual licenses from the City of Los Angeles. Movement post-initial application to L.A. has been a common practice for EMMDs for some time, and has apparently caused a rift with other potential Read entire story